Reading

I’m an Apple News+ Article. Come and Get Me, Baby

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-an-apple-news-article-come-and-get-me-ba…
Created
Thu, 19/12/2024 - 00:01

I start this game of cat and mouse when you least expect it: You’ve swiped right to search for an unused app on your phone that you’re convinced you have somewhere. I lure you in with my headline: “Oolong Tea Is Having Extreme Effects on Health.” Yeah, I knew you’d be interested. You love oolong tea. I’ve been waiting for you. You click, and that’s when I show myself for the first time: This Article Is Only Available to Apple News+ Subscribers, of which you are not one. Nice try.

“You can look, but don’t touch,” I whisper from my protected paywall’s safe, loving embrace. You scoff, thinking you can best me, but I know this music, and I’ve been waiting for the dance.

You open Safari and furiously type my headline into the search bar. I’ll overlook your spelling mistakes and periods in between words, I know you’re doing your best, clumsy thumbs. The search engine is a friend, so he takes his sweet time opening up his wealth of knowledge to you. He knows this is a duel of desire.

Republicans Said the FTC Was Too Politicized. Now Trump’s FTC Pick Says It Should be Politicized — by Trump.

https://theintercept.com/2024/12/18/trump-ftc-andrew-ferguson-ticket-fees/
Created
Wed, 18/12/2024 - 20:30

“When you imagine what the FTC is willing and able to do in the service of an authoritarian Trump administration, that takes you to some really terrifying places.”

The post Republicans Said the FTC Was Too Politicized. Now Trump’s FTC Pick Says It Should be Politicized — by Trump. appeared first on The Intercept.

yes hello where is this end of history i was promised

http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=4277
Created
Wed, 18/12/2024 - 19:00
archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about
December 18th, 2024next

December 18th, 2024: And that is it for Dinosaur Comics i

Maybe Chicken Little Should Take A Breather

https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/17/maybe-chicken-little-should-take-a-breather/
Created
Wed, 18/12/2024 - 12:00
This piece in The Atlantic takes a look at the election results with a fresh eye: Five days after last month’s election, Senator Chris Murphy rendered a damning verdict on his party’s performance. “That was a cataclysm,” the Connecticut Democrat wrote on X. “Electoral map wipeout.” Donald Trump had won both the popular vote and the biggest Electoral College victory—312 to 226—for any Republican since 1988; Democrats had lost their Senate majority and appeared unlikely to retake the House. The Democratic Party had lost touch with far too many American voters, Murphy concluded: “We are beyond small fixes.” Other prominent Democrats saw a similarly sweeping repudiation of the party’s brand. “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Senator Bernie Sanders wrote in a statement issued less than 24 hours after the polls closed. At the time of those reactions, millions of votes had yet to be counted, and several of the nation’s closest House races remained uncalled.

What’s With All The Crypto?

https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/17/whats-with-all-the-crypto/
Created
Wed, 18/12/2024 - 10:30
If you’re like me, this whole crypto craze is somewhat mystifying. And I really don’t understand the necessity for it. Paul Krugman at his Substack has the answer: crime. The tech bros who helped put Trump back in power expect many favors in return; one of the more interesting is their demand that the government intervene to guarantee crypto players the right to a checking account, stopping the “debanking” they claim has hit many of their friends. He goes on to point out that this is actually the opposite of what the whole Bitcoin revolution was supposed to do which was eliminate the need for banks: What’s going on here? Elon Musk, Marc Andreesen and others claim that there’s a deep state conspiracy to undermine crypto, because of course they do. But the real reason banks don’t want to be financially connected to crypto is that they believe, with good reason, that to the extent that cryptocurrencies are used for anything besides speculation, much of that activity is criminal — and they don’t want to be accused of acting as accessories.

The Governor Strategy

https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/17/the-governor-strategy/
Created
Wed, 18/12/2024 - 09:00
As Tom mentioned this morning in this excellent piece, it sure feels as if whatever resistance there was to Trump during the past 8 years is evaporating. Most of those who haven’t decided to jump on the MAGA bandwagon just don’t want to hear about it. CNN reported yesterday that its latest poll shows that 72% of those polled say they’re paying little to no attention to Trump-related news. I wrote about one early bright spot in all this a while back: the Blue State Governors. At the moment they seem to be the only ones showing a willingness to fight. Rolling Stone took a deep dive into their plans: Among governors, [Illinois Governor] Pritzker has been out in front — positioning himself as the blue-state anti-Trump. The Hyatt hotel heir is a billionaire himself, worth nearly $4 billion, which counts as fuck-you money in an age when opposing Trump can carry significant costs, from increased security to the risk of retaliatory litigation, or “lawfare.” In November, Pritzker launched a new organization, called Governors Safeguarding Democracy, that seeks to unify state-based opposition to Trump’s agenda. Unveiled with co-chair Gov.